I'm sure I left something out, but the steps are here. A good amount of this stuff is from TGL's gentoo beta 1 how-to. As usual, backup your data before starting. You will be formatting partitions which destroys all data. You have been warned.

Preparing for Install

Start by using any FTP client to upload EM_mode_binaries.tar.bz2 (you can download it from http://kurobox.com/downloads/gentoo to /tmp on the Kuro (hint: Windows may change the extension of the file when you download it from the internet). Then login to the kuro using a telnet client

Install EM mode utilities

Partitioning & Formating HDD

We run fdisk and create partitions. I use four partitions: hda1 for /, hda2 for the swap space, hda3 for /var, and hda4 for data storage (/datafiles). This section from the Gentoo Handbook explains how to prepare your hard disk (create partitions). For most users, 10gb each for / on hda1 and /var on hda3 is adequate. 512mb is good for a swap space on hda2 and use the remainder for /datafiles on hda4. However you can decide which way you want to break up your hard disk. Remember you need to mount all of the drives (except the swap and /datafiles) before you untar the system file (More on that later).

# fdisk /dev/hda

I have read that journaling and indexing will speed up your system. If you would like to setup journaling and indexing click here and follow the instructions for formatting your partitions. A tune2fs binary for the Kuro can be downloaded from http://www.kurobox.com/downloads/gentoo. When you are done, click the link to return to this page and you will be returned at the step where we create the swap space. If you don't want to set up full journaling and indexing just continue on with these instructions.

Once the partitions are created we format the partitions. Here we format the first partition on /dev/hda (the hard drive is /dev/hda).

Install Gentoo KuroBox Stage 3

Mount new partitions

This will allow us to create the gentoo system on the hard drive instead of in the flash ram disk. We will create the directoy /gentoo mount /dev/hda1 there, then create /gentoo/var and mount /dev/hda3.

Extracting Stage 3

We now use our FTP client to upload system-20060108.tar.gz from http://www.kurobox.com/downloads/gentoo to the /gentoo directory on the kuro. we also upload portage-snapshot-20060108.tar.gz. Use the most current one you can find. It can be found at any of the gentoo mirrors. The last file we need to upload is the current portage overlay which was portage-overlay-20060122.tar.gz when I wrote this. It can also be found at http://www.kurobox.com/downloads/gentoo.

We now change directories to /gentoo and untar the system in what will be our root directory

Install portage

Next we install the portage overlay. I store my overlays in a subdirectory of /var/overlays. The subdirectory is based on the date of the overlay. Note that if the overlay you download is not a .gz file you should omit the z switch in the tar command below (tar xvf...).

Now we configure portage. The GENTOO_MIRRORS and SYNC lines need to be adjusted for your location. Pick the three nearest sites listed at http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/mirrors.xml for your GENTOO_MIRRORS line. For Your SYNC line, your choices are namerica, samerica, europe, asia and au (australia) in place of namerica in my SYNC line. Also, make sure the PORTDIR_OVERLAY line matches the location of your overlay.

Notice the 20060122 in the following line. Change it to the date of your overlay in order to point to the correct directory. The link is the relative diretory from /etc. Notice we have to go up 1 level (../) before going back down the /var part of the tree.

Notice the 20060122 in the following lines. Change it to the date of your overlay in order to point to the correct directory. It is the relative path from the profile in the overlay to the profile in the official portage tree. Each ../ indicates a directory up in the tree. Just count the directories up and then add the path back down.

Now we'll check if the system is up to date while at the same time testing portage.

KURO-BOX-EM etc # emerge -puD system

If there are packages that need installing/upgrading, wait until you finish the install guide and reboot the system before running emerge -uD world. I know for a fact that glibc won't emerge if you try to do it right now, but it will after the install is complete.

Configure New System

Configure mounts (fstab)

We edit /etc/fstab as required. Here are the important parts of my fstab:

Configure Network

If you want a static IP address you need to uncomment a couple of lines. Scroll down to the section INTERFACE HANDLERS and uncomment the following lines. In the example I have set the IP address to 192.168.0.9, the network mask to 255.255.255.0, and the gateway to 192.168.0.1. Do not uncomment the default via 4321:0:1:2:3:4:567:89ab". You will want to change the IP address, subnet mask, and gateway address to suit your network. If you want to use DCHP, don't edit the file at all as it defaults to DCHP.

Last we need to update our config files. Don't do this blindly as you can easily break your brand new system. You need to understand what the configuration files mean and choose what lines you want to edit.